George Washington's Secret Weapon

George Washington's Secret Weapon PDF Author: Yurii M Ustin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This is the amazing saga of a little-known, penniless Polish volunteer who was crucial to America's War for Independence. If someone had just imagined his life, no one would believe it. Tadeusz Kosciuszko was born in 1746 to an impoverished noble family in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He managed to get a good military education but was exiled from his country for trying to elope with the beautiful daughter of a powerful magnate. Except for his knowledge, character, and striking good looks, he had few advantages when he left Europe with many others to fight in General Washington's rag-tag volunteer army. After he arrived in Philadelphia in 1776, Benjamin Franklin interviewed him and recommended him as an engineer in the Continental Army. Over the next few years, he played central roles in the world-changing American victory at Saratoga, the construction of impregnable fortifications at West Point, and in Nathanial Greene's brilliant fight-and-run campaign through the Carolinas that led to a British surrender at Yorktown. He was the polar opposite of Benedict Arnold, the blood-and-glory hero of the Continental Army before he sold Kosciuszko's West Point plans to the British for a general's commission in their army. Arnold would also be unbelievable if someone had just made him up. So why did Arnold turn traitor? What made Kosciuszko the secret weapon of the Continental Army? How did Washington and his generals feel about this quiet Polish genius? How did he manage a close friendship with Thomas Jefferson while criticizing his slave-holding? How is Kosciuszko's name pronounced? How about his impossible birthplace of Mereczowszczyzna? Why do few Americans know of his successful role in securing their independence while Poles revere him despite his failure to free their country?

George Washington's Secret Weapon

George Washington's Secret Weapon PDF Author: Yurii M Ustin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book

Book Description
This is the amazing saga of a little-known, penniless Polish volunteer who was crucial to America's War for Independence. If someone had just imagined his life, no one would believe it. Tadeusz Kosciuszko was born in 1746 to an impoverished noble family in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He managed to get a good military education but was exiled from his country for trying to elope with the beautiful daughter of a powerful magnate. Except for his knowledge, character, and striking good looks, he had few advantages when he left Europe with many others to fight in General Washington's rag-tag volunteer army. After he arrived in Philadelphia in 1776, Benjamin Franklin interviewed him and recommended him as an engineer in the Continental Army. Over the next few years, he played central roles in the world-changing American victory at Saratoga, the construction of impregnable fortifications at West Point, and in Nathanial Greene's brilliant fight-and-run campaign through the Carolinas that led to a British surrender at Yorktown. He was the polar opposite of Benedict Arnold, the blood-and-glory hero of the Continental Army before he sold Kosciuszko's West Point plans to the British for a general's commission in their army. Arnold would also be unbelievable if someone had just made him up. So why did Arnold turn traitor? What made Kosciuszko the secret weapon of the Continental Army? How did Washington and his generals feel about this quiet Polish genius? How did he manage a close friendship with Thomas Jefferson while criticizing his slave-holding? How is Kosciuszko's name pronounced? How about his impossible birthplace of Mereczowszczyzna? Why do few Americans know of his successful role in securing their independence while Poles revere him despite his failure to free their country?

George Washington's Secret Six

George Washington's Secret Six PDF Author: Brian Kilmeade
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143130609
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
When George Washington beat a hasty retreat from New York City in August 1776, many thought the American Revolution might soon be over. Instead, Washington rallied—thanks in large part to a little-known, top-secret group called the Culper Spy Ring. He realized that he couldn’t defeat the British with military might, so he recruited a sophisticated and deeply secretive intelligence network to infiltrate New York. Drawing on extensive research, Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger have offered fascinating portraits of these spies: a reserved Quaker merchant, a tavern keeper, a brash young longshoreman, a curmudgeonly Long Island bachelor, a coffeehouse owner, and a mysterious woman. Long unrecognized, the secret six are finally receiving their due among the pantheon of American heroes.

George Washington's Secret Spy War

George Washington's Secret Spy War PDF Author: John A. Nagy
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250096820
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
George Washington was America’s first spymaster, and his skill as a spymaster won the war for independence. George Washington’s Secret Spy War is the untold story of how George Washington took a disorderly, ill-equipped rabble and defeated the best trained and best equipped army of its day in the Revolutionary War. Author John A. Nagy has become the nation’s leading expert on the subject, discovering hundreds of spies who went behind enemy lines to gather intelligence during the American Revolution, many of whom are completely unknown to most historians. Using George Washington’s diary as the primary source, Nagy tells the story of Washington’s experiences during the French and Indian War and his first steps in the field of espionage. Despite what many believe, Washington did not come to the American Revolution completely unskilled in this area of warfare. Espionage was a skill he honed during the French and Indian war and upon which he heavily depended during the Revolutionary War. He used espionage to level the playing field and then exploited it on to final victory. Filled with thrilling and never-before-told stories from the battlefield and behind enemy lines, this is the story of how Washington out-spied the British. For the first time, readers will discover how espionage played a major part in the American Revolution and why Washington was a master at orchestrating it.

Washington's Spies

Washington's Spies PDF Author: Alexander Rose
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0307418707
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Turn: Washington’s Spies, now an original series on AMC Based on remarkable new research, acclaimed historian Alexander Rose brings to life the true story of the spy ring that helped America win the Revolutionary War. For the first time, Rose takes us beyond the battlefront and deep into the shadowy underworld of double agents and triple crosses, covert operations and code breaking, and unmasks the courageous, flawed men who inhabited this wilderness of mirrors—including the spymaster at the heart of it all. In the summer of 1778, with the war poised to turn in his favor, General George Washington desperately needed to know where the British would strike next. To that end, he unleashed his secret weapon: an unlikely ring of spies in New York charged with discovering the enemy’s battle plans and military strategy. Washington’s small band included a young Quaker torn between political principle and family loyalty, a swashbuckling sailor addicted to the perils of espionage, a hard-drinking barkeep, a Yale-educated cavalryman and friend of the doomed Nathan Hale, and a peaceful, sickly farmer who begged Washington to let him retire but who always came through in the end. Personally guiding these imperfect everyday heroes was Washington himself. In an era when officers were gentlemen, and gentlemen didn’ t spy, he possessed an extraordinary talent for deception—and proved an adept spymaster. The men he mentored were dubbed the Culper Ring. The British secret service tried to hunt them down, but they escaped by the closest of shaves thanks to their ciphers, dead drops, and invisible ink. Rose’s thrilling narrative tells the unknown story of the Revolution–the murderous intelligence war, gunrunning and kidnapping, defectors and executioners—that has never appeared in the history books. But Washington’s Spies is also a spirited, touching account of friendship and trust, fear and betrayal, amid the dark and silent world of the spy.

George Washington's Secret Spy War

George Washington's Secret Spy War PDF Author: John A. Nagy
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250096812
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
"Using George Washington's diary as the primary source, Nagy tells the story of [his] experiences during the French and Indian War and his first steps in the field of espionage. Despite what many believe, Washington did not come to the American Revolution completely unskilled in this area of warfare. Espionage was a skill he honed during the French and Indian War and upon which he heavily depended during the Revolutionary War. He used espionage to level the playing field and then exploited it on to final victory"--Amazon.com.

Secret Weapon

Secret Weapon PDF Author: Kevin D. Freeman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1596983116
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
A New York Times bestseller! Who’s really to blame for America’s catastrophic financial meltdown and devastating national recession? Contrary to what the “Occupy Movement” might tell you, it’s not just greedy Wall Street executives (though they certainly earned their share of scorn). It’s not just failed regulation (even though Washington has failed miserably, both Republicans and Democrats, to protect us). As one of America’s top financial professionals reveals in this shocking new book, the failures of Wall Street and Washington have opened us up to economic warfare, with our foreign enemies exploiting our lurking financial weaknesses. In Secret Weapon, Kevin D. Freeman unveils how all the evidence—including motive, means, and opportunity—points to America’s foreign enemies as deliberately pushing our economy over the brink.

The First Conspiracy

The First Conspiracy PDF Author: Brad Meltzer
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 1250130344
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Taking place during the most critical period of our nation’s birth, The First Conspiracy tells a remarkable and previously untold piece of American history that not only reveals George Washington’s character, but also illuminates the origins of America’s counterintelligence movement that led to the modern day CIA. In 1776, an elite group of soldiers were handpicked to serve as George Washington’s bodyguards. Washington trusted them; relied on them. But unbeknownst to Washington, some of them were part of a treasonous plan. In the months leading up to the Revolutionary War, these traitorous soldiers, along with the Governor of New York, William Tryon, and Mayor David Mathews, launched a deadly plot against the most important member of the military: George Washington himself. This is the story of the secret plot and how it was revealed. It is a story of leaders, liars, counterfeiters, and jailhouse confessors. It also shows just how hard the battle was for George Washington and how close America was to losing the Revolutionary War. In this historical page-turner, New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer teams up with American history writer and documentary television producer, Josh Mensch to unravel the shocking true story behind what has previously been a footnote in the pages of history. Drawing on extensive research, Meltzer and Mensch capture in riveting detail how George Washington not only defeated the most powerful military force in the world, but also uncovered the secret plot against him in the tumultuous days leading up to July 4, 1776. Praise for The First Conspiracy: "This is American history at its finest, a gripping story of spies, killers, counterfeiters, traitors?and a mysterious prostitute who may or may not have even existed. Anyone with an interest in American history will love this book." —Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God “A wonderful book about leadership?and it shows why George Washington and his moral lessons are just as vital today. What a book. You’ll love it.” —President George H.W. Bush “This is an important book: a fascinating largely unknown chapter of our hazardous beginning, a reminder of why counterintelligence matters, and a great read.” —President Bill Clinton

Guns for General Washington

Guns for General Washington PDF Author: Seymour Reit
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780152164355
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Seymour Reit re-creates the true story of Will Knox, a nineteen-year-old boy who undertook the daring and dangerous task of transporting 183 cannons from New York's Fort Ticonderoga to Boston--in the dead of winter--to help George Washington win an important battle.

The Mosquito

The Mosquito PDF Author: Timothy C. Winegard
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1524743437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 639

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Book Description
**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award Finalist for the RBC Taylor Award “Hugely impressive, a major work.”—NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity’s fate Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito. Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power. The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village. Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable. Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito’s reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.

Smersh

Smersh PDF Author: Dr. Vadim Birstein
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 1849546894
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
SMERSH is the award-winning account of the top-secret counterintelligence organisation that dealt with Stalin's enemies from within the shadowy recesses of Soviet government. As James Bond's nemesis in Ian Fleming's novels, SMERSH and its operatives were depicted in exotic duels with 007, rather than fostering the bleak oppression and terror they actually spread in the name of their dictator. Stalin drew a veil of secrecy over SMERSH's operations in 1946, but that did not stop him using it to terrify Red Army dissenters in Leningrad and Moscow, or to abduct and execute suspected spooks - often without cause - across mainland Europe. Formed to mop up Nazi spy rings at the end of the Second World War, SMERSH gained its name from a combination of the Russian words for 'Death to Spies'. Successive Communist governments suppressed traces of Stalin's political hit squad; now Vadim Birstein lays bare the surgical brutality with which it exerted its influence as part of the paranoid regime, both within the Soviet Union and in the wider world. SMERSH was the most mysterious and secret of organisations - this definitive and magisterial history finally reveals truths that lay buried for nearly fifty years.